As we prepare to end the year, it’s always interesting to look at the year in review and see what content on our website was most popular with channel marketers like you. Our most popular blog posts, eBooks, and webcasts of 2018 appear below.

The way brands and channel partners think about marketing together is changing. The change is being led by the modern digitally-driven buyer who does much of their research online rather than through sales engagement, as has been the case previously. Brands continue to get a ton of traffic on their websites through their own marketing as well as receiving contributions from their channel partners' efforts.. Brands collect leads but generally don't share them with channel partners as many sell direct as well as through-partners.

With mainstream awareness of blockchain-based products and services increasing thanks to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, there’s a lot of buzz about the decentralized technology but very little understanding of what it is and its potential as a disruptive force.

I have been spending some time thinking about what blockchain-based channel tools could mean for brands and their channel partners. All relationships require trust to be successful. And transactions of any kind between two parties require trust, but it’s not always easy, especially given the ups and downs of typical business relationships.

According to Mike Orcuttwriting for the MIT Technology Review, “the whole point of using a blockchain is to let people—in particular, people who don’t trust one another—share valuable data in a secure, tamper proof way.”

Blockchain-based systems are potential game-changers for indirect channels. They offer the potential for transparent, trusted and accountable partnerships. But they don’t exist yet, so for now, it’s interesting to consider the possibilities.

In a recent LinkedIn post, Larry Walsh, CEO and Chief Analyst of The 2112 Group shared his perspective that brands aren’t responsible for transforming their partners’ businesses. As the tech industry shifts its delivery of solutions to the cloud, and as customers shift their buying preferences from purchases (capital expenses) to subscriptions (operating expenses) channel partners must evolve their sales processes, compensation, and solution delivery models to suit the needs of modern buyers. Not making these changes will cause partners to lose relevance in the market and they’re likely to shrink rather than grow their customer base.

Walsh suggests that there is a role for brands to play, but it’s different than taking responsibility.

At Averetek, we believe in a marketing approach centered on teaching. We try to share what we know with our clients, prospects, and partners every day. We do this through conversations, emails, blog articles, and eBooks. But all that teaching content comes in small parts. No single piece of content laid out a complete framework for how best to deliver channel marketing, not one that we had created, and nothing from other sources.

We searched Amazon to see what books already exist on the topic of channel marketing and there were none. Knowing that no one goes to school for channel marketing (and we have yet to find a college course that contains this subject) and seeing how hard channel professionals work to figure out how to be successful, we saw an opportunity.

While there are a lot of similarities in building partner channels around the world, there are some important regional differences to consider to achieve success. During a recent episode of Office Hours with Mike and Peter, we spoke with Marcelo Vidigal Monteiro de Barros, CEO of SalesImpact!, a marketing agency based in São Paulo, Brazil.

Life is much simpler (at least in some ways) when you’re on the making money side of the business (sales) rather than the spending money side of the business (marketing). The word that sends a shiver down the spine of every marketer is “forecast”, as in “Did you enter your marketing expense forecast? Did you hit your forecast? Why did you miss your forecast?”

Like others, I’ve lost sleep over whether I was going to make my forecast or not.

Getting partners to pay attention is the hardest part of your job. How can you ensure your next campaign will connect with partners and get them to participate? Ask yourself these 6 questions about your marketing campaign message or content before you hit send.

In 2010, Scott Brinker of the Chief Marketing Technologist blog developed his first view of software products involved in marketing as part of a presentation about the rise of marketing technology. At the time, the visual he produced had about 100 vendor logos covering a PowerPoint slide.

Now, in 2016, the Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic has grown to 3,874 logos, including Averetek in the "Channel, Partner, and Local Marketing" category.